(l-r: PERCIVAL EVERETT | LING MA | SUSAN WILLIAMS | DARRAN ANDERSON DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU | JASMINE LEE-JONES | ALEXIS PAULINE GUMBS | DG NANOUK OKPIK)
Congratulations to the recipients of the Windham-Campbell Prizes for 2023. Announced on the 4th April this year’s winners are;
– Percival Everett (United States) – fiction
– Ling Ma (United States) – fiction
– Susan Williams (United Kingdom) – nonfiction
– Darran Anderson (Ireland/United Kingdom) – nonfiction
– Dominique Morisseau (United States) – drama
– Jasmine Lee-Jones (United Kingdom) – drama
– Alexis Pauline Gumbs (United States) – poetry
– dg nanouk okpik (Iñupiaq-Inuit) – poetry
Michael Kelleher, Director of the Windham-Campbell Prizes, said:“Reading this year’s recipients excited me because each one taught me new ways of seeing the past, the present, and the future. I can’t wait to see what each of them does next!”
The Prizes were the brainchild of lifelong partners Donald Windham and Sandy M. Campbell. The couple were deeply involved in literary circles, collected books avidly, read voraciously as well as penning various works. For years they had discussed the idea of creating an award to highlight literary achievement and provide writers with the opportunity to focus on their work independent of financial concerns. When Campbell passed away unexpectedly in 1988, Windham took on the responsibility for making this shared dream a reality. The first prizes were announced in 2013.
The Prizes are administered by Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, and nominees for the Prizes are considered by judges who remain anonymous before and after the prize announcement. Recipients write in the English language and may live in any part of the world.
For more information about the prizes and this year’s winners, please visit the website
*this post was compiled using material from a press release but all opinions remain my own.
Congratulations to author Ehmbee Way on the release of Compunction! Read on for more details!
Compunction
Publication Date: March 28th, 2023
Genre: Psychological Thriller/ Suspense/ Terror
In a relatively short amount of time, James Singer has lost his wife, his job, his home and his subsequent place in the world. Now, with appearance of a shadowy phantasm who has taken to terrorizing him every night, he’s beginning to fear that he, like his schizophrenic aunt, is also on the verge of losing his ability to discern what is real and what is not.
As James’s condition continues to grow worse, he begins to mysteriously and uncontrollably phase in and out of several different worlds-all of which seem to be inhabited by quirky, non-conventional and often down-right absurd characters. James doesn’t know if he’s dreaming, overmedicated, in the throes of a nervous breakdown or if he’s already dead but one thing he does know is that, one way or another, it all ends on Monday.
Compunction combines the suspense of M Night Shyamalan, the psychological melancholy of Edgar Allen Poe and the absurdist vibe present in Netflix’s Midnight Gospel. The result is a suspenseful, character-driven, upmarket fiction that’s all about redemption and second chances. Or, as USA Today bestselling author Pamela Crane says, “Compunction reaches new literary heights as it bends the genres of psychological thriller with fantastical misadventures. You’ll relish its delectable prose and timeless theme of self-discovery, wrapped in an urgent plot that will hook you.”
Ehmbee Way is a former corporate success who earned his undergraduate degree in the field of education. For many years, he battled internal feelings of nihilism, alcoholism and depression. He wrote Compunction with the hope that it would help others affected by similar issues.
I am always envious of the genuinely amazing line ups for the Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival held in Harrogate, this year 20-23 June. It looks incredible. If you’re going, you’re in for an amazing time.
The 2023 Festival Chair, award winning crime and thriller author Vaseem Khan, has curated a ground-breaking programme. Alongside the special guests headlining the Festival, including literary legends Lee Child, Andrew Child, Lisa Jewell, Ruth Ware, Ann Cleeves, Jeffery Deaver, Lucy Worsley, S. A. Cosby, Val McDermid,and Chris Hammer, the full programme includes some of the biggest names in crime fiction.
Exploring everything from the perfect murderous opening, police procedurals and dark obsessions to legal thrillers and the golden age of crime, this year’s 20th anniversary programme will see a variety of acclaimed crime and thriller authors discussing the genre and influences on their writing, including Janice Hallett, Shari Lapena, Louise Candlish, Abir Mukherjee, Steve Cavanagh, Elly Griffiths, Ragnar Jónasson, Clare Mackintosh, Mick Herron, Will Dean, Laura Shepherd-Robinson, Chris Brookmyre, and many more!
Get the full line up and event schedule at the website and follow on Twitter and Instagram for updates and sneak peaks.
Image via Twitter
*This post was created using information from a press release but all opinions remain my own.
A teenage girl tempted from this world over a carpet of bluebells… A house full of shadows and a presence waiting to be let in… Finally, everything is going well for Erica Murray, witch and paranormal investigator. That is, until the mother of a missing teenage girl recognises Erica’s fae lover, Alfie, for what he is and begs for his help. Erica must step into Alfie’s world to find the girl, but it means discovering secrets about her lover that might tear them apart. Meanwhile, Jess Tidswell has other things on her mind. Her parents are meeting Jess’s new dog and, more importantly, her fiancé for the first time. That’s not the worst of her problems. Her parents, keen for a new adventure, have bought a house and it comes with some unexpected residents. Shadows that move of their own accord, a curious spirit and something malevolent that lives on the periphery. Unable to contact Erica, can Jess handle this terrifying ordeal on her own and protect her family? Deep in another world, can Erica find the missing teenager and bring her out of harm’s way? It’s going to be a long weekend.
J E Nice is a fantasy author who lives in a city filled with dragons, woodland where the fae hang out, on an airship home to a crew of sky pirates and, sometimes, on the outskirts of Bristol in England. Wherever she is, there is always cake. Instagram
My thoughts: this isn’t my usual fare, as someone who remains deeply sceptical about the existence of ghosts and other things (although my mum insists there was a presence in my childhood home when we moved there), I actually quite enjoyed this book about paranormal investigators Jess and Erica.
This is book four and can be read as a standalone, as I did, but you might prefer to read the whole series and have the full back story. I did get a bit lost in Erica’s romantic plot line – what with the time travelling detective ex/future husband and the fae lover Alfie – so the previous stories might make sense of all of that.
Jess has gone to introduce her new fiancé to her parents, only for them to spring a surprise – they’ve bought a new house and it needs a lot of work. Especially when Jess (and daughter Ruby) sense all is not well in the house. There’s a ghost and something else – something nasty. Can Jess get rid of this malignant presence?
Erica meanwhile has gone into the land of the fae with Alfie to carry out a wellness check of sorts on a teenage girl spirited away by a fae who insists they’re meant to be. If that’s the case, why all the bluebells?
A fun adventure story with magic, witches, and lots of tea and cake. I might just have to work backwards and read the rest of the series!
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
D/C Mike O’Shea, a young cop with a knack for working hard and following hunches, is on the verge of cracking a prostitution ring when an undercover from another unit burns him.
With only days left before their pimps shuttle the girls out of the country, Mike pushes his team into overdrive. Hours later, with too little information, sleep, or luck, the unthinkable happens.
And now, the chase is personal.
In the first of the Mike O’Shea Series, 10-33 Assist PC draws us into the dirty world of human trafficking through the eyes of the cops who put their lives on the line every day to shut it down.
Born and raised in Toronto, Desmond P. Ryan graduated from UofT and joined what was then the Toronto Police Force. He has been a front-line officer, a beat cop, a patrol sergeant, an instructor at the Toronto Police College, and a detective over the almost thirty years of his career.
Whether as a beat cop or a plainclothes detective, Desmond dealt with good people who did bad things and bad people who followed their instincts. Now a retired detective, he writes crime fiction. Des is presently working on the Mike O’Shea Series and the Mary-Margaret Series, both published by Level Best Books.
Desmond lives in the Toronto neighbourhood known as Cabbagetown, where he can be seen wandering about, considering his next plot point or on his way to the pub.
My thoughts: the team that are the the focus of this book are the good guys, tough, wise cracking cops who deal with one of the worst crimes – sex offences, in this case human trafficking, involving minors. The underage teenage girls Mike and his colleagues are looking for have been tricked, kidnapped, raped and abused. But that doesn’t mean everyone has given up on them.
Unfortunately a tangle with another team means their cover’s blown and now the risks are worse, the danger becomes personal when Mike’s partner is hurt and Mike determines to stop at nothing to get these young girls home and safe, bringing down the ring and locking up the cruel men involved.
There’s time for humour in amongst the grimness of their jobs, teasing their partners, asking for new ones, winding up the boss. There’s Sal, with his horrible sunflower seed habit, Julia and her Italian swearing. There’s even time to drop by Mike’s mother’s house for family dinner – even cops have to eat. Until it turns deadly, then everyone becomes laser focused.
A solid new police procedural set in Toronto, with realistic characters and intelligent plotting. This series should be really enjoyable if this first book is anything to go by.
Click on the image for more about the tour
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Perfect for fans of Beauty & the Beast, Romeo & Juliet, A Curse So Dark & Lonely, A Court of Mist and Fury, and The Cruel Prince.
Welcome to the tour for the bestselling novel The Divine and the Cursed by J.E. Reed! Read on for more!
The Divine and the Cursed (A Fae Fantasy Romance)
Publication Date: December 6th, 2022
Genre: Romantic Fantasy/ Fae
From multi-award-winning author J.E. Reed comes a breathtaking new series full of love and survival.
A queen in hiding. Two countries at war.
When eighteen-year-old Arianna is stolen from her family and sold into slavery, she spends months disguised as a half-breed Fae struggling against the devastations of a decade-long war. But she never expected to find herself at the mercy of her country’s greatest enemy.
General Rion is ruthless and commanding. He relishes in his reputation as The Demon-a vile creature incapable of love or compassion. With a secret no one can know, Arianna strives to placate him while plotting her escape, but sometimes fate has other plans and rumors can’t always be trusted.
She’ll have to make a choice. Kill the most feared male on the continent or stay and let a forbidden bond take root. But what will happen when he discovers her secret?
Trigger Warnings: War, Violence, Slavery, Torture, Death, Blood, Starvation, Kidnapping, Injury, SA (no on page descriptions only mentioned), Loss of a Parent
A #1 Amazon Category Best Seller in Teen & Young Adult Sword & Sorcery Fantasy ebooks!
Number 1 New Release in 3 Categories!
#1 Teen & Young Adult Paranormal & Urban Fantasy Romance ebooks
J.E. Reed is the award-winning author of the Number 1 Best Selling Amazon title: The Divine and the Cursed and The Chronopoint Chronicles. She lives in Cincinnati with her husband, son, and two cats. Reed works as a Licensed Massage Therapist in the quiet town of Anderson. She graduated massage school in 2009 and has spent the last seven years building her small business. When she’s not writing, Reed enjoys swimming, yoga, and the occasional mud run with friends.
Wealthy and privileged, Alex has an easy path to success in the Parisian elite. But he and his domineering father have never seen eye to eye. Desperate to escape the increasingly suffocating atmosphere of their apartment, Alex seeks freedom on the streets of Paris where his new-found friend Sami teaches him how to survive. But everything has a price – and one night of rebellion changes their lives forever.
A simple plan to steal money takes a sinister turn when Alex’s father is found dead. Despite protesting their innocence, both boys are imprisoned for murder. Seven years later Alex is released from prison with a single purpose: to discover who really killed his father. Yet as he searches for answers and atones for the sins of his past, Alex uncovers a disturbing truth with far-reaching consequences.
In the heart of Paris, against a backdrop of corruption, fake news and civil unrest, The Messenger is a mind-racing new thriller that follows one son’s journey to find redemption and expose the truth.
Megan Davis was born in Australia and grew up in mining towns across the world. She has worked in the film industry and her credits include Atonement, In Bruges, Pride and Prejudice and the Bourne films. Megan is also a lawyer and is currently an associate at Spotlight on Corruption. She has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. Her debut The Messenger won the Bridport Prize for a First Novel in 2018, judged by Kamila Shamsie, as well as the Lucy Cavendish Prize for unpublished writers in 2021. She has lived in many places, including France for a number of years, but now lives in London.
My thoughts: Alex was convicted of a serious crime but he knows he’s innocent, and now he’s out of prison he wants to prove it. His journalist father was working on something big but no one wants to tell him anything and one of his dad’s friends supposedly committed suicide too.
As he digs into his dad’s last story, he’s threatened and beaten up. He and old school friend Lisa get trapped in a riot, tensions are running very high in Paris. Could it be connected?
Clever and twisting, this is an intelligent and complex thriller with interesting things to say about the world we live in and how we can resist the manipulation of society and stand up for what we believe in. Inspired in part by real cases of undercover operatives and planted articles, this is an impressive and well written debut. I expect we’ll see more good writing from Megan Davis.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Daniel Berkåk works as a courier for the Press and Military Office in Stockholm. On his last cross-border mission to Norway, he carries a rucksack full of coded documents and newspapers, but before he has a chance to deliver anything he is shot and killed and the contents of his rucksack are missing.
The Norwegian government, currently exiled in London, wants to know what happened, and the job goes to writer Jomar Kraby, whose first suspect is a Norwegian refugee living in Sweden, whose past is as horrifying as the events still to come…
Both classic crime and a stunning expose of Norwegian agents in Stockholm during the Second World War, The Lazarus Solution is a compulsive, complex, richly authentic historical thriller from one of the godfathers of Nordic Noir.
One of the fathers of the Nordic Noir genre, Kjell Ola Dahl was born in 1958 in Gjøvik. He made his debut in 1993, and has since published fourteen novels, the most prominent of which is a series of police procedurals cum psychological thrillers featuring investigators Gunnarstranda and Frølich. In 2000 he won the Riverton Prize for The Last Fix and he won both the prestigious Brage and Riverton Prizes for The Courier in 2015. His work has been published in 14 countries, and he lives in Oslo.
My thoughts: oh this is clever, sending you all over Sweden and occupied Norway, looking for a killer, a conspiracy, when actually it’s something else entirely. Nobody seems to be able to explain, people are double crossing every way, and somehow writer Jomar Kraby, who’s very good at pretending to be a bit thick, must solve it to satisfy the government in exile, and more importantly himself.
Even when he’s told to stop digging, he doesn’t, even when the Germans are on his heels, he keeps going. He wants answers and he’s not satisfied with only knowing a little. He wants the whole lot.
Dragging along behind him is the man he suspects killed Daniel Berkåk, brother to another man who is linked to this whole mess. Soldier, sailor, internment camp inmate, Kai Fredly claims to want to go to the UK and join the Norwegian army, but hasn’t left Stockholm and has some interesting acquaintances. Sucked into a conspiracy, not exactly connected to the one Kraby’s chasing, he’s afraid to leave and recruited by both sides, he’s stuck.
As the plot winds it’s way through the Venice of the North, through bars and restaurants, homes for refugees, the offices of the Norwegian delegation, apartments and parks, taking in more and more people for Kraby to wonder about, it slowly reveals who the players are and the game they’re all in. Oh, and the reason it’s called The Lazarus Solution…well maybe Kraby has the answer to that too. Deliciously ingenious and thoroughly enjoyable, a spy thriller that hooks you in and definitely not just another WW2 read.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Sometimes when you can’t see the way forwards, the best thing to do is to look back… When Jessie left home at eighteen, she swore she’d never go back. But when life takes a turn for the complicated, she’s forced to move in with her twin, Isaac, and his two best friends. To her dismay, one of these is Elliot, the boy Jessie once loved, until his life was changed forever by a terrible accident that Jessie still blames herself for. Cohabiting with three alarmingly unhouse-trained males was not in Jessie’s life plan so when Isaac, Elliot and Arthur offer her a generous rent discount if she’ll help them with their ‘Boys to Men Project’, designed to end years of disastrous dating, she reluctantly accepts the challenge. As Jessie embraces the comfort of being home, revelling in her new job at her parents’ day centre, full of people determined to grow old disgracefully, she realises her housemates aren’t the only ones needing to make some changes. And maybe, if she can finally forgive herself for Elliot’s accident, she can start to look forward to a future, with or without him by her side. Purchase
Beth Moran is the bestselling author of romantic novels including Christmas Every Day and Just The Way You Are. She regularly features on BBC Radio Nottingham and is a trustee of the national women’s network Free Range Chicks. She lives on the outskirts of Sherwood Forest.
My thoughts: this was lovely, I want to be an Outlaw now, please don’t tell me I have to wait till I’m older! Jessie moves home after things take a downturn and into the house her twin shares with his two equally hopeless housemates and best friends. Honestly I knew a few men at uni that were like this – the never washed multi cooker might even be a gross thing too far for them. These three, Isaac, Arthur, and Elliot are hopeless. Not at everything, but their home is a pit, they’re all single and not thrilled about it, and they dress like teenagers (and a funeral director).
They ask Jessie to help them out of their life slump, and in the process the four become closer and Jessie realises a few things about her life too.
Her job as the activities manager at the day centre is hilarious, those Outlaws are a handful, but what joy! Even if they drive everyone crazy, throw water fights at a Jubilee picnic (I always thought the Queen had a gleam in her eye, she might we have joined in), dye their lifelong nemesis’ hair green, potentially run away and give the centre’s cook a breakdown, but they’re having a great time.
The friendships between Jessie, her housemates, Connie, Wilf, and the football team are delightful. This is just a rather lovely book with a sweet and charming cast, and some love stories too!
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
One Sentence Pitch: Fan Mail is a multi-layered coming-of-age story about a family of adopted brothers, embedded in a gripping thriller that will keep the reader guessing who is behind the letters and the car bomb, and fearing one or more of the boys may die before the culprit is found.
Short Blurb: A car bomb, threatening letters, and a heart attack cause the once tight-knit and supportive family of adoptive brothers to turn on each other. Can Detectives Graff, O’Connor and Eiselmann solve who is behind it before the family is torn apart? Before anyone is seriously injured? Before one or more of the boys die?
Long Blurb: A barrage of threatening letters, a car bomb, and a heart attack rip apart what was once a close-knit family of adopted brothers. Randy and Bobby, along with fellow band member and best friend, Danny, receive fan mail that turns menacing. They ignore it, but to their detriment. The sender turns up the heat. Violence upends their world. It rocks the relationship between the boys and ripples through their family, nearly killing their dad. As these boys turn on each other, adopted brother Brian flashes back to that event in Arizona where he nearly lost his life saving his brothers. The scars on his face and arms healed, but not his heart. Would he once again have to put himself in harm’s way to save them? And if faced with that choice, will he?
After having been in education for forty-six years as a teacher, coach, counselor and administrator, Joseph Lewis has semi-retired and now works part-time as an online learning facilitator. He uses his psychology and counseling background to craft thriller/crime/detective mysteries, and has taken creative writing and screen writing courses at UCLA and USC. Lewis has published eight books, all available on Amazon and each to excellent reviews: Taking Lives (May 2021) the prequel to the Lives Trilogy; Stolen Lives (May 2021) Book One of the Lives Trilogy is a BestThrillers 1st Place Award Winner for Crime Fiction, and a Literary Titan Gold Book Award Winner; Shattered Lives (May 2021) Book Two of the Trilogy; and Splintered Lives (May 2021) Book Three of the Trilogy (May 2021); Caught in a Web (April 2018), which was a PenCraft Literary Award Winner for Crime Fiction and named “One of the Best Crime Fiction Thrillers of 2018!” by Best Thrillers; Spiral Into Darkness (January 2019), which was named a Recommended Read by Author’s Favorites; Betrayed November 2020 is a Top Shelf Award 1st Place Fiction-Mystery; Top Shelf Award Runner-Up Fiction-Crime; PenCraft Award 1st Place Winner, Maxy Award Runner-Up for Mystery-Suspense, a Literary Titan Silver Book Award Winner, and a Reader’s Favorite 5 Star Rating Winner; Blaze In, Blaze Out January 2022 has already won a Literary Titan Gold Book Award, A Reader’s Favorite Recommended Read, and was an Editor’s Pick by BestThrillers.com . Lewis has another thriller-crime-mystery, Fan Mail hitting the market March 30, 2023.
Born and raised in Wisconsin, Lewis has been happily married to his wife, Kim. Together they have three wonderful children: Wil (deceased July 2014), Hannah, and Emily. He and his wife now reside in Virginia.
My thoughts: a book about a band of brothers,biological, step, adopted, and found family. A book about a stalker and the band they’re obsessed with, a book about an escalating crime, a book more than anything about family, the ties that bind and when they can stretch and break.
Brian is the brother the others turn to in a crisis, but he’s struggling at the moment with his own issues, their dad’s heart attack making things more complicated. Can the boys turn to him now? They don’t want to put each other in danger but the stalker sending letters to the band that several of the brothers are in, are escalating and the police seem unsure what to do next.
The pressure on these young men is intense, can their family hold it together?
In this intense thriller, with a mysterious and increasingly dangerous stalker, lives are on the line. The detectives are close to the family but not to catching the letter writer and there are plenty of twists and turns that hold them back. The pace is quick and there’s a lot of detail to hold on (could I have Danny’s eidetic memory please) but the writing keeps you there and in the end, while I couldn’t remember how all the boys were connected, it didn’t matter, and they learned to lean into each other when needed.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 